When we’re younger, our hearts beat in tandem to our imaginations. I’d love to say life is simple, that we grow up and gradually learn about the world. We take it in, process it, and then go out there, and live life to the fullest. But that’s not entirely true. As much as life is the world we live in, the world we imagine becomes part of us all the same.
As someone who loves writing, from stories to small poems, I have let my imagination run rampant for the better part of my life. Sometimes, it consumes me and becomes an untamable monster that I sometimes cower before. Yet I love it all the same. I love writing and imagining worlds, blending truths and lies into fantasy and watching it become something a little bit more tangible; a little bit more real.
Now, you may be wondering, what does that have to do with a movie that was released over a decade ago?
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Well, when I was little, I was a Disney channel kid. I knew all the run times, had favorite shows and characters, and owned enough Hannah Montana merch to be a brand ambassador. I would memorize the “Monstober” schedules and make sure all my chores were done so that I could comfortably sit by the TV when my most anticipated movies were to start. I can’t swear by this, but I am pretty sure one of those Octobers is when my love for Twitches began. The idea that this entire unknown dimension existed and was nurturing magic lit a fire within me. Twitches is a movie about twin witches who were separated at birth and reunited on their 21st birthday. They must use their magic to save the world where they were born and their birth mother still lives.
I wanted to be a witch almost as much as the twins wanted to defeat the darkness in Coventry. But, it wasn’t only magic that called out to me. I also particularly loved the Sun and Moon elements of their magic.
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I fell in love with the idea that the forces of the Moon and the Sun, seemingly so opposite from each other, could come together in perfect balance. Their differences made them so perfect, with one needing the other to thrive. I wanted nothing more than to be able to wield the forces of the Moon, or if it was a particularly greedy afternoon, I’d dream of being offered both Sun and Moon magic. Within my imagination, ambition was vivid, and anything was possible.
Now, I’d like to say my imagination died there, that I grew up, ready to take on the real world. But it didn’t. The belief in Sun and Moon magic, in the balance they represented, the power it had, never stopped for me. I wrote poems using them as metaphors, stories where the characters were connected to the controlling forces of the Moon and the consuming chaos of the Sun. I lived my life guided by it.
Sure, I knew magic wasn’t actually real—but wasn’t it? Was it really so far off? I remember my happiness to see these movies back then; dreaming of being able to do magic, having such a profound connection with something so pure, with such an intricately powerful force of nature.
To me, magic meant to belong to something bigger than yourself, to have purpose.
Of course, I never did get my powers, but I still found the Sun and the Moon equally magical, equally powerful. I would walk along the beach and feel the burn of the Sun on my skin, feel energy coursing through me. I could close my eyes and imagine that it was a kind of magic in and of itself, one that allowed me to take something from that very moment; happiness at being by the light, feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin. I would sneak out at night, sit on top of my mom’s SUV, and talk to the Moon; ask her for advice, read my stories to her, and, at my most troubled times, I’d wish for her soothing control—and I could swear it worked.
Without knowing it, I brought my ambitious imagination into the mundane experiences of daily life.
And it all started with a little girl’s heartbeat. Her imagination being as big as her heart and a movie that did nothing but add fuel to the fire of that imagination, helped that magic to grow. Sometimes, as young adults, we love something and then when we become adults, we wonder how we could have loved this?! Suddenly, we look back and realize that, deep down, we’re not so different from those younger versions of ourselves, at least not in our hearts. I still read enough fantasy to get lost in my imagination; and I write it, too. I also still go nuts at theSun and Moon metaphors.
It all started then, with magic and this movie. I may not be that little girl anymore, but my love for magic remains all the same.